Easiest Homemade Ricotta Cheese {2 Simple Ingredients}

Imagine making Ricotta cheese with just two simple ingredients. Hard to believe, right?

Whether this is actually called Farmer’s Cheese, Ricotta, or even dry curd, dry cottage cheese, or Queso Blanco – is up for debate. It kind of depends on what you use to make it, what you put in it and how long you let it drain. They all have similar characteristics: they don’t melt, they’re considered a “bland cheese” (until you season it), and they’re really easy to make! If you’re lactose intolerant, you’ll want to steer clear of this since it’s “fresh” or not aged cheese, it contains more lactose.

I’m enjoying Do It Yourself projects lately, and so I decided it would be fun to try to make cheese. I live in Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland, so it seems natural that I’d want to. I don’t have cows, but I live in a very small town with many family farms surrounding us. I grew up here, and for a while my family did have a small dairy farm. Talk about a fantastic childhood!

But, I’m not exactly ready to delve into becoming a fancy cheesemaker and spending a lot of time on this. I just wanted to see if I could make something we could eat and enjoy. So, I Googled “Easy Homemade Cheese” and was pretty shocked at how not easy they all seemed. I don’t want to buy a bunch of ingredients simply for the purpose of making cheese, I just want to make it and eat it! 😉

They say using raw milk from grass-fed beef is best when you’re making your own cheese. Since this recipe is for Easy Cheese – or would that be Easy Cheesy? – I’m not going to suggest that you go out of your way to find raw milk. I would imagine it’s wonderful, but I didn’t do that. I used milk from the store. It’s pasteurized (just be sure it’s not ultra pasteurized).

You also don’t need other ingredients you need to make other homemade cheese, such as special cheese salt or even muslin or cheesecloth to strain it – because you don’t need to do all that with this super easy cheese recipe.

What can you do with Gimmie’s Super Easy Cheese? You can use it in Italian dishes, such as lasagne. You can add honey to it and eat with crackers (yum!!) Or, sprinkle it on salads or put in your tacos. Get creative!

What’s it cost? That all depends on milk prices, and that varies so much it’s impossible for me to figure out what it will cost you. But, around these parts you can find milk on sale priced, 2 gallons for $5. That would mean you’re spending about $2.50 a gallon and since this recipe makes around 2 pounds of cheese, that’s $1.25 a pound. At Walmart by me, 15 oz of their Great Value brand Ricotta cheese (which is just less than a pound) costs around $2.

How to Make

Super Easy Ricotta Cheese

INGREDIENTS

1 gallon whole milk

1/2 cup vinegar (use 3/4 cup for firmer cheese)

DIRECTIONS

Heat 1 gallon of whole milk in large pot on stovetop, over medium/high heat until it scalds (thin layer forms on top of milk). Be careful not to let the bottom scorch or burn.

Remove from heat and add vinegar. Stir and watch the curds and whey separate until whey (liquid) becomes clear and yellowish color.
Optionally, you can add salt. I used about 3 tablespoons of sea salt. Just stir it in while you’re making it, or you can add salt while you’re using (eating) it.

Strain in a colander. Note: your colander needs to have small holes that will keep the cheese in it. I used a pasta pot with it’s own built-in colander top and that worked just fine. You could line a coarse (big-hole) colander with cheese cloth. The longer you let it strain, the firmer the cheese will become.

Makes about 2 lbs of cheese for essentially the cost of a gallon of milk!